I-Newsource looked at all the leases on the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal, talked with port supporters and opponents, maritime experts, and dozens of employees and small business owners affected by what happens on that land. What follows is a look at the terminal from all angles

“This will become a major issue in the campaigns and the U-T will be forced to lead a campaign to disband the PORT [sic],” U-T San Diego CEO John Lynch wrote to Peters. He was referring to provisions he wanted to see made regarding the impending 24.5-year lease with Dole Food Company.

Peters said Lynch sent the email threat to his personal account, but Peters deleted it when he forwarded the email to port officials. The port had been under assault and he didn’t want to demoralize the staff with a “threat of extinction,” Peter said.

“This whole thing, that the U-T is coming after us, it’s not really good for the port,” he said.

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Truncated Email from John Lynch to Scott Peters

A truncated email exchange between John Lynch and Port Commissioner Scott Peters.

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Full Email from John Lynch to Scott Peters

Peters shared the entire email exchange with the I-Newsource/KPBS Investigations Desk on Thursday.

“I’m happy to give you this one, and I hope it helps,” Peters said.

The truncated email was cited in an I-Newsource/KPBS investigation aired and published Monday, documenting financial and political ties among U-T owner Doug Manchester, his business partner Lynch and elected officials. The investigation focused on the U-T’s push to develop the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal downtown into an entertainment complex that would include a Chargers stadium.

The investigation detailed how Lynch has publicly boasted about having “concrete meetings” with “hopefully the right people,” but they’ve “tried to keep it down low.” He also told Peters in another email, “We actually have made significant progress, with labor, Chargers, County, business, Navy, and one of the Mayoral candidates.”

Councilman Carl DeMaio, a Republican who was endorsed on the front page of the U-T in his bid for mayor, has known Manchester since 2003, not long after DeMaio came to San Diego. Despite the endorsement, DeMaio said he does not favor the U-T vision but rather supports continued maritime uses at the terminal. He insists he is not the candidate Lynch was referring to in the email.

In the initial email from Lynch, sent to Peters’ personal email account on August 9, he asked Peters how he intended to vote on extending the lease with Dole Fruit Company. The 24.5-year extension, which Lynch subsequently called the “Chiquita Banana Caper,” appeared to have dashed U-T San Diego’s vision for a Charger stadium on the terminal.

Peters said he forwarded the email to the port’s lawyers. His email, in part, assured Lynch the Dole lease could be rescinded.

In an interview Thursday morning, Peters explained why he deleted the threat.

“I didn't send the rest of it because the notion that the Port would be threatened with extinction — it's just people are working really hard at the port,” he said. “It's tough on morale to have their work meet that kind of comment, and it just didn't seem relevant.”

Peters’ truncated email was shared with I-Newsource/KPBS as part of a Public Records Act request to the Port. The email showed up as a public record because it had been copied to Port lawyers with Port email addresses.

The law is unclear in California and across the country about whether emails sent to private addresses are public, even if they deal with the public’s business.

Peters defended cutting the line.

“I was trying to avoid making the battle any bigger,” he said.

Peters also did not include an email from former Port Commissioner Peter Q. Davis, which Lynch forwarded to him, when he Cc’d the Port attorney. In his email, Davis appeals to Lynch’s position as head of the newspaper, hoping he will have a reporter quiz the Port on the lease.

“This would appear to be about 1/5 of the space at 10th Avenue Terminal---But it ends stadium talk for 24.5 years----I have to believe the Port will make a big deal about that and rubbing it in the U-T's face at next Tuesdays meeting--Sure hope you have a reporter cover that and ask investigative questions--Like How much is Dole Paying----Also once unl;oaded [sic] "where do these containers go"? Davis wrote.

We have repeatedly objected to the assertion that Scott Peters “deleted” any emails. That is not true.At the time of the Dole lease vote, Peters forwarded a part of an email from John Lynch to Port staff for an answer to a question, and to ensure that Mr. Lynch could follow up if he had additional questions. The issue was whether the Dole lease could be terminated before the end of the term. The rest of the email exchange was not relevant to the question that Peters had. Weeks later, when a reporter asked the Port for records, the Port turned over all of the records in its possession, including the partial email exchange described above.Yesterday, when a reporter asked Scott Peters if there was any more background, he provided the entire exchange, without regard to whether it was a public or private record. He was happy to do so.It was never deleted. How could KPBS have it if it had been deleted?

Both Lynch and Manchester know San Diegans would never elect either of them to public office so they have to use their money, rape our media outlets, and bully elected officials to get their way instead of running for office themselves.

Wow... key word.. HOTELS!! How did Manchester get rich? Development!! Lynch and Manchester want a piece of the Port so badly that he had to buy the the UT and the North County times to promote their propaganda.. Hotels do not drive the economy, trade drives the economy... More trade more money into the US economy... If we hit a bad recession again, guess what San Diego.. No one will take vacations, which also means tourism will go down... The economy thrives in trade...eg.. Import and export.. Trade has always stabilized the economy... Simple macroeconomics....